Periodic table problems

Six months have passed since I started this blog and can you believe it, not once have I mentioned the Chemist's "bible", the Periodic Table...  There are many, many versions of the Periodic Table online, I recommend these two...

WebElements Periodic table

Visual Elements Periodic table

For Senior students, the David Whizzy Periodic table is excellent

 David Whizzy's table (screenshot shown above) has good, clear visuals of the electrons in the s, p, d orbitals along with the charachteristic emission spectrum for each element.

Extension students of all ages may be interested in taking a look at the progression of the Periodic table over the centuries and can view the many different forms of the Periodic table here on the informative Periodic Table Formulations site

A fun way to introduce the Periodic table is with the Tom Lehrer "Elements song" from 1952, as mentioned on my previous blogpost titled "Eurovision song contest"

There is a small selection of periodic tables below which enable students to experience some of the frustrations of the early chemists as they tried to arrange the elements, I'd recommend that students work collaboratively is small groups as they discuss one of all of these.

	Periodic table discovery activity
	Periodic table of extraterrestrial elements
	Merrymen of Matterdom image and teacher guidelines here

I like this 4 minute video from Teachers Domain called "The elements forged in stars", it "illustrates the critical role that the stars play in creating the elements".

and for revising previous knowledge of the Periodic table try this Alien Periodic table with teacher answers here.

and for more Senior students a good challenging problem is the Periodic difficulties with teacher answers here.

and a concept map of the Periodic table from the Royal Society of Chemistry.

A finally a Periodic table of Comic books, who would have thought!  The links to elements are a little loose but may certainly inspire your students to think up and then sketch their own cartoon strips that illustrate the properties of, sources of or uses of elements in the Periodic table.

Go the All Whites!!! Who would have thought, good on you New Zealand, that small island on the edge of the Pacific, that was a wonderful goal and unexpected draw against the World Champions.  Best of luck against Paraguay in a few hours time.